A variety of instruments and devices have been devised for use in measuring the gauge or wall thickness of a pipe. On the other hand, various types of templates have been designed for measuring different articles but, to the best of my knowledge, no one has designed an easy-to-use, hand-held template for measuring wall thickness of pipes and other tubular members.
Representative of templates which have been designed for use as measuring instruments include U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,570 to J. H. Mays, Jr. which discloses a gauge having a V-shaped slot for measuring hands, fingers and joints. U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,649 to K. P. Parker discloses an angle gauge for measuring the angular relationship between two surfaces. U.S. Pat. No. 884,821 to J. Huhta et al is directed more to a wire working tool and U.S. Pat. No. 4,635,370 to B. K. Beaver shows a caliper including a gauge and scale. Other patents of interest in this field are U.S. Pat. No. 1,881,651 to F. Judge, U.S. Pat. No. 3,154,861 to J. Rubenstein and U.S. Pat. No. 4,150,488 to E. R. Behnke.